If you've always dreamed of finding your freedom by running an online business or blog, perhaps even from an exotic location, then you'll love my latest podcast with Ryan Biddulph of Blogging From Paradise. He can help you turn that dream into your new reality.

Listen to the podcast

Ryan lives an incredible island hopping lifestyle – all paid for by his full-time blogging income – and in episode 35 of the Content Champion podcast, he shows us how to emulate his success.

A talented and prolific writer, and an all round nice guy, Ryan shares some actionable strategies on achieving the right mindset for blogging, plus he gives us some practical advice on being a more productive and focused online publisher.

Ryan has an infectious personality, and I could have talked to him all day about some of the fantastic places he's visited, but it was his content marketing knowledge I was really fascinated to tap into.

Ryan Biddulph

In this inspiring and motivational 35 minute show, we discussed:

Ryan's backstory and why he chose to go on his island hopping adventure

How his new lifestyle inspired him to create the amazing Blogging From Paradise community

What are some of Ryan's favourite locations he's visited on his travels

The right mindset you need to succeed online

Why you need to continually learn new skills to stay ahead of the curve

A day in Ryan's writing life when he's blogging from paradise

The practical tips Ryan uses to be more productive

The strategies Ryan employs to promote his blog posts and ebooks

How anyone can achieve Ryan's success – and where to start

Plus! The PS Question! Ryan shares a content promotion strategy that has gained him some serious exposure – and you can do it too!

On the show this time I'm delighted to be speaking with island hoping blogger, entrepreneur, and ghostwriter Ryan Biddulph of bloggingfromparadise.com.

Ryan lives an amazing lifestyle of visiting some of the most incredible countries in the world blogging for profit from sun-soaked beaches while he travels.

I could honestly listen to Ryan's travel stories all day, but it's what we could learn about his highly-successful blogging and content marketing process that's the subject of today's show, as Ryan walks us through some practical strategies to emulate his success, let's dive in.

Thanks very much for coming on, Ryan.

Ryan: Loz, thank you so much for having me. I'm so honored and appreciate it.

Loz: Now, you're living what a lot of people would call the perfect lifestyle island hoping in various paradise locations whilst earning a living blogging. Now, I got loads of questions about how you achieved this. First, could you tell us your back story of what you were doing before this and why you made this lifestyle choice?

Ryan: Well, sure, Loz. I started off actually as a pier guard, a security officer, not to far from where I am now in New York City. I was working eighty, ninty hours a week sometime because in that niche it's all about the overtime when you're working on the docks. I put in hours, put in hours.

Eventually, they downsized a lot of the guards moving to a more computerized system. My fiance, Kelly, told me about the online bits. She said, “You know, you could actually make money online. Free yourself a little bit. You don't have to work like a dog.” It sounded pretty attractive to me.

I learned a bit more about it, did some research on a few opportunities, bought my domain and hosting. That was actually five years ago. It wasn't until about two to three years into the online bit where I started thinking about island hoping.

Kelly had taken a few trips. I remember dropping off at the airport. She was going to Europe also South and Central America. She had mentioned about doing southeast Asia. It turns out she got a teaching job in Bali. Well, I was like that's somewhere I definitely like to see.

It seemed like the perfect mode between that lifestyle and blogging or doing anything online for that matter. I ran with it. We started the trip forty-four months ago. Forty-four months later we've been Fiji, Bali, Costa Rica, so much of South East Asia, the South Pacific. It's just been something. Freedom is so big with me, Loz.

My last vacation before this trip was 1989. I had never left the country. I know it's very American of me thirty-six years old never left the country didn't have me passport. I was never on a plane. My first plane flight was from New York JFK to Denpasar which is about twenty-three hours all together.

I dove into this. It was a baptism by fire in a lot of ways. Freedom was just so big with me because I was working so many hours at my former job where I just saw this opportunity. I saw it. I seized it. I ran with it. Here we are.

Loz: Tell us about the blog. Where can we find it? What's the ethos behind it?

Ryan: It is a bloggingfromparadise.com. Basically, it's my life. I decided to create something that would help people retire to a life of island hoping through smart blogging.

Now, where ever paradise is for you whether it's your hometown whether or it's some tropical locale island wherever you want to go, it's just all about freeing yourself. Using your blog as a lifestyle engineering vehicle, that was really my driver behind it, Loz. I'm like listen, “I did it.” I was a broke security guard. All I knew was how to check espn.com and my e-mail five years ago and that's literal. That's not an exaggeration. I really only knew how to do those two things.

I'm like if I could build a profitable, prospering blog, I know anybody else could do it if they want to go in that direction and just free themselves with it.

Loz: I've got to through a curve ball at you. You don't have to give us any specific figures obviously. When you talk about a profitable blog, you were able to fund your lifestyle through this blog?

Ryan: Correct. Correct. It's one of those things where I don't do income claims because I'm more about focusing on the end goal of just engineering that free lifestyle.

To tell you the truth, Loz, in so many of these countries, thank goodness I'm beyond this point now for a number of years now, you could live under the bare end of poverty line in the US and go to a place like Thailand and almost live like a king. I mean it's really insane. I think that's what some people make the mistake of thinking, “Okay. To travel you have to be loaded.” You have to do this. You have to do that. It's not the case.

A lot of these western countries, a lot of these people who are researching how to prosper online having an average or modest lifestyle, can make you almost a millionaire in a place like Thailand especially a place like Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand.

I mean we'd eat lunch, really whole some good lunch, Kelly and I for $2.00 USD every day. I mean this was good stuff. This is not drivel off the streets. It's one of those deals where I have been blessed to have a full-time income to be able to do this full time and sock away a bunch in savings as well.

It's just a fascinating thing because so many people get in their mind, “Okay. I need to be making this much to be able to …” I'm like listen, “We rent villas.” This is when we … higher renting sometimes. We've rented service villas in the middle of the rice fields in Bali. Bali like that movie Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts. We've been there. We've done those things. You'd be stunned at how much it costs.

Just by getting your lifestyle, your blog in order, and your finances and making even a modest amount how that dollar or that pound how you can stretch it out in some of these places is absolutely stunning.

Loz: Well, I'm sold. When can I go?

Ryan: Yes, I'll met you in Ubud. We were there last week actually. That was Eat, Pray, Love, the movie with Julia Roberts we were literally staying a one-minute walk from the villa that they filmed it in.

It's like freaky because right now I'm looking out in the East River. I was in Jersey this past week visiting with family. Last Thursday I was in Kuwait City with a change over. Two days before that I was in Bangkok. Two days before that I was in Ubud. You can't make it up man.

Five years ago I didn't know how to do anything online. I really didn't; like e-mail was just it. I'm like I just want to tell people. I've freed myself in such a big way. I swear anybody can come along for this ride if they know why and if they want to make their freedom and freeing others A-1.

Loz: One of the great things about your blog when you first come to it it's a warmth that comes out of it. Not just literally obviously your personality and your quality of your writing but also the photos of where you've been it just looks amazing. What are some of your favorites? You've touched upon a few there. Where are some of the places you've gone and just gone, wow?

Ryan: Wow. There's so many Thailand in general. Thailand might be favorite country in the world. We love Chiang Mai for it's practicality, it's beauty, so much stuff to do. Phuket is awesome the southern tip especially of Phuket. Ko Lanta is beautiful and then also Bali.

Bali is also one of our favorite … Well, it's actually an island with Indonesia. It's just the charm of the people, the warmness of people. I'm telling you in some of these places like if you walk into somebody's like somewhere in Bali … We were in a little compound last week, a little Balinese neighborhood. You become family the moment you walk into their home. It's just such a different experience.

Hey, I'll be real. Being from New Jersey that's not going to happen to much. You got to really get to know someone most places over the course of months or years. There's it's automatic. I would say probably Thailand and Bali are two favorite places.

As far as beauty Fiji, Sabusabul we did four months on the water in Sabusabul which was probably referred to as the “hidden paradise” of Fiji. That's what the locals call it. It was just jaw dropping. I never seen anywhere like there where night looked like a … Actually looked like a planetarium. You would see the Milky Way. I thought it was a high-hanging cloud. Turns out it was the Milky Way. These are things that you read in books. You see on TV. It was just absolutely stunning.

That was another spot too. Fiji we really loved. Really the whole time we've loved everywhere we traveled to with all the crazy experiences we had at times. I have to say really the whole of the trip it's almost been my favorite place everywhere we've been.

Loz: Sounds so amazing. I know this is supposed to be about content marketing this podcast. I could talk to you for half an hour, an hour, all day about all these wonderful places.

Let's bring it back to your prolific writing ability, your excellent blog that you mentioned, the E-books that you've been writing. Before we dig down into those specifics though, I want to talk about mindset because you've touched upon freedom there and allying blogging with traveling with the freedom that gives you.

You believe as you say anyone can emulate what you've achieved if they are proactive about it?

Ryan: Really, Loz, mindset is every thing. I think that's my wheel house. I could offer the practical tips. They'll work for you. Creating the value, connecting with leaders everybody's heard that. The problem is whatever it is 97-98% of bloggers are entrepreneurs they fail. They don't do what I've done because they're more fearful of doing uncomfortable things than they crave freedom.

There's a certain tipping point there. When you want to be free more than you fear doing uncomfortable things, you will understand what it takes. You'll naturally do those freeing but uncomfortable things. Writing the E books, starting the blog, connecting with the leaders doing all those things that you may fear doing.

Really it's crazy man. I'm doing this podcast with you. In ten hours from now, I'm going to be speaking to a class at NYU. They used one of the chapters from my E-books for monetization. This is a class at NYU down the block here in New York. It's like how could a guy who was a broke, unemployed, security guard seventy-grand in debt, being sued by creditors, going bankrupt how could I guy do that and than come to this space? It's all mindset. You have to move into action.

You have to want to be free more than anything and just get clear on that intent. Because once you have that love of freedom and then you want to bring people along with you, your audience, your customers, your clients you want to free them as well, then you'll move into those practical, actionable tips that so many people say. Creating E books, creating the blogs, connecting with the leaders, sharing value most people don't do that stuff. They just put a link out there. They write a blog post, “Buy my stuff.” They put a link out there.

They don't realize that they have so much inner clearing to do through meditation, visualization, affirmation, studying self-help books. It's really getting the inner game down and as within so without. Then you'll start to see the results. You'll start to move into the inspired action.

Loz: Like you say it can be in paradise. It can be island hoping. You can find that freedom as I've done for the last fifteen years. I've been my own boss. I've worked and lived in a variety of different places across the UK and traveled a bit not as much as yourself.

In that time, I've supported myself with my own business. I'm probably unemployable now with another company because I've been my own boss for so long. That lifestyle is achievable, isn't it, if you have the right mindset and you learn new skills. That's something else I picked up on from your writing is the continual learning of those new skills to up your game.

Ryan: It really is, Loz. It's one of those things where if you want to be free more than anything and you've molded such a freeing lifestyle for yourself … I'm in the same boat. I really am unemployable. I could never go back. It's one of those things where if you just … That's not so much information overload. Sometimes it's just, “Oh, I need so much more. I need so much more.” I'm a proponent of that we're whole and complete as is.

It's one of those deals where as we expand our awareness, as we expand our consciousness, we're just going to pick up these little tips here and there. We learn a little bit. Why don't we learn these two or three things today. I'll looked at your blog. I left a comment on your blog this morning. I said, “Oh, I picked that idea up.” It's just picking up these little things a long the way. Keeping your energy up. As long as you're open and willing to learn and you humble yourself, you will open doors you never dreamed you'd open.

Whether the paradise is in your hometown or around your country or in Fiji, you can go to that space. You can move into that experience if you're just humble open. You want to be free and for your audience more than anything in the world.

Loz: A lot of the content marketing processes you hinted on earlier as well does come down to people not giving it a fair crack. They perhaps give up to early.

I'd like to dig down into some specifics if we may of how you're writing and how you're blogging, so if you'd like, a day in the life of blogging from paradise. How often you posting on your blog? How'd you get so much done? How does this leave time for you to go on your travels and explore all these wonderful countries you're in? What's your strategy behind that?

Ryan: Well, I say, Loz, if you want to be a blogger, networking is huge. Honest to goodness you want to be writing one-thousand to two-thousand words a day. You don't have to. Again, to really get into the spirit of it and to do things a long the lines that I've done, I write two-thousand words on most days. More than that I'm up to six-thousand words on a lot of days between my E-books and my blog posts.

Now, these days I'm writing six-thousand to seven-thousand word blog posts. I can only do that once a week. That's an E-book size deal there. I want to learn to go epic and start making a bigger impact on search engines. I want to really establish my authority. For a while I was doing three twenty-five hundred posts each week.

What I would say more than anything and one of the practical tips that I've just adopted with my blog now it's never publish a post until you feel really clear that it is going to make a serious impact.

I think for the longest time I would just put out four or five-hundred words of my own blog back in the day and six-hundred words. You could, of course, offer supreme value in that number of words. There's nothing wrong with that. I wasn't publishing to make a difference. I didn't feel clear about it. I was just publishing to publish a post. That's the worst driver, the worst purpose behind publishing, and it leads to most of the mediocrity online.

I just figured if I'm going publish something, write two-thousand words a day, devote it towards a post now where I'm publishing once a week.

As far as my day I wake up. I meditate first thing in the day. It really clears my mind. It helps me move into a very creative space. I'm writing two-thousand words a day between my blog post for the week and also my E-books. I'm also commenting on authority blogs for my niche. I leave like three or four paragraph blog comments rather on top blogs to be able to connect with niche leaders like yourself and build those prospering friendships that lead to things like podcasts.

That's the thing. A lot of people they don't realize that your friends are going to take your blog as far as you can or even a thousand as far as you can. Because if I'm just talking about myself and I have a few friends I have a little bit of a network, I'll reach a few people.

When I do a podcast with someone like yourself, of your stature, I'm just chatting with so many new people, meeting so many new people. Blog commenting is a really big part of what I do. I might do that for like a good two to three hours a day because blog commenting is one of the cornerstones for my online marketing campaign.

This is just such a tiny little thing that so many people miss. I'm taking frequent breaks throughout the day. I might work for twenty-five minutes. Then I'll take five minutes off. I'll work for fifty minutes and take ten minutes off or fifteen minutes. This is something called, I don't know if you're familiar with this, the Pomodoro Technique?

Loz: Yes.

Ryan: Yes. I'm telling you, Loz, it is just the most practical tip. You can have a little alarm on your computer or just look at the clock or have something that pulls you away from your work. Because I really feel that my creativity one of the secrets of it … I just published ten E-books in four months.

My blog post like I said seven-thousand, six-thousand, seven-thousand where I blog post now once a week. It's taking those breaks those spaces of silence and those spaces of quiet. That's where the eureka moments happen. That's where a lot of the brilliance happens. Of course you're going to work inspired. Sometimes you might push it a little bit because we're all human being.

Those moments of pause where you're just pulling back entirely that's where the pure magic happens. That's another practical tip I'd add. Make sure you get those breaks in there throughout the day.

Really the crux of my day is just the writing and writing and writing and writing finding my voice. Then commenting on the authority blogs. Probably that third, if you want to call the holy trinity of what I do, the creating, the blog commenting, I would say it's social media; promoting other people freely on sites like Twitter, Facebook, a little bit on Linkedin, Google Plus as well.

Really it's just pure sowing and reaping whatever you put out there. You promote other really. You chat on their social updates. They'll do the same for you. Your presence expands exponentially when you really get into doing this for the love of it.

Loz: Your approach seems to be a blend of two people I've had on the podcast before Steve Kamb of Nerd Fitness and Steve Scott. Steve Kamb obviously writing the similar epic blog posts and really honing them into amazing pieces of content before he publishes. Steve Scott writing E-books for the Amazon Kindle platform. I think he writes one a month now. He's making $40,000.00 or something a month for his Kindle publishing empire.

You seem to be, through your prolific writing ability, you seem to be combining those two approaches into one whole strategy if you like.

Ryan: It's interesting too you mentioned him, Loz, because Steve and I go back years.

Loz: Steve Scott?

Ryan: Yes. When I first started with my old blog and I was really just working my way up, I used him as a model blogging wise and affiliate marketing wise. Then we fell out of touch for a while. He had been traveling. This is before I did the travel bit. He went all around Europe for a number of years. He's also a fellow New Jersey guy. He's from my home state in America.

Just recently when I really got hardcore into Kindle publishing side of things, I used him in some areas as a model for my E-book publishing campaign. I took about a month off after publishing the ten. I just started with my next E-book a couple days back. I use him as an inspiration because, yes, he puts them out. Between how much sales he's generating and just his prolific that nature, he's just putting them out there.

With E-books the idea is a lot of people get into this mindset that you're putting out some novel or something that's epically in depth and thorough. Yes, it has to be good. It's a much different experience. Because most people are reading on their handheld these days, their tablets, their smart phones, these mobile devices, they don't want to be there reading it for weeks on end.

You want to just get the content out there, get the value out there, like something like Steve does and obviously make it practical, make it usable. Just become a publishing machine with it because it's a much different animal than like a novel or something really, really in depth. He seems to have mastered that. He's a champion. He's a real pro with that.

Loz: Just from strategic point of view you'd be better off really reading between the lines of what you're saying writing one epic say five-thousand word blog post that really changes the world, and then accompanying E-book to go with it in a month than you are to be churning out low-quality articles and trying to do this affiliate thing attaching links onto the end of things that don't really mean anything.

Ryan: The blog I had before this it was successful. I developed a full-time income off it. I did well with it. There's blogs before that. Even that blog in it's early day I just learned a lesson that quality really does trump quantity in Google's eyes, in your reader's eyes, in the universe's eyes. It makes so much more sense. Even if you're a newbie, you're thinking how in the hell am I going to write seven-thousand words? I can't write three-hundred.

Back in the day three-hundred words I'd start crying. I'd be so frustrated. I had writers block instantaneously. I just could not write. I had no clue what I was doing. It was such a painful experience. Everyday I would just write a little bit more no matter what.

I'm just of the proponent of the idea that all that you want is outside of your comfort zone. If you're just willing to reach a little bit farther and be a little bit more uncomfortable and just crave that freedom more than you fear doing the uncomfortable stuff, you'll write fifty more words today. Somebody in the beginning they may write five-hundred word posts once a week. That's okay. Maybe even twice a week. Just don't fall into that cycle of if I should publish today?

Google doesn't like daily posts. Google likes people to put in your search term and on page one of Google seeing a resource that knocks people's socks off. That's what Google wants. You write that. Make that your goal. Work up to that. Don't work up to one blog post a day or six a week. Just get something out there quality, depth, gravitas, whatever you want to call it. Just something that really brings it home. That's where the pretty neat lifestyle's like I've molded for myself that's where they start coming into form when you really knock it out of the park.

Announcer: You're listening to the Content Champion Podcast showcasing the best content marketing strategies across the web. We're back with Ryan Biddulph.

Loz: Tell me about these four E-books in four months. Why did you do that? What did you learn from it? I think it ended up being ten in the end, didn't it?

Ryan: I think, Loz, it was pure inspiration. We were in Fiji at the time. It's about six month ago. We were in Sabusabul. I just launched blogging from paradise the blog. Right off the bat I get that inner urge like, “Okay, I got to create products. What am I going to do product wise?” I'm like E-books. I think E-books would mirror my personality, my aptitude from writing. Just I enjoy churning out content. I'm like why not do the E-book bit.

The four in four months I just had a little intuitive nudge from the universe just like publish, publish, publish, write. I didn't have time to do a blitz. I'm just getting into that now. I didn't have time to promote them super effectively. It became more of like this going into my cyber cave in paradise in Sabusabul and just writing like the blazes and getting it out there.

Just thinking you know what there's a number of topics I could cover. Let me talk about how to retire to a life of island hoping through smart blogging. That seems to be something that would be popular with people. It's my life. Let's roll with that.

Then the second one was how to build an online empire through blog commenting because Chris Brogan New York Times bestselling author he's endorsed me twice. He endorsed that E-book and also the first one of my serious the How To Retire To A Life Of Island Hoping Through Smart Blogging. I'm like well, I guess that constitutes building an online empire with both the blessings financially I've received and the lifestyle I live. He's endorsed my twice.

Again, like I said speaking at NYU tonight. I was featured on over a hundred blogs in like five months and most of them were authority blogs too. I went in that direction. I'm like you know what I've had some wacky travel experiences. I almost died in India from Giardia. I was pretty close to death's door within a day or two and a motorbike accident in Bali.

I'm like let me mold these travel experience into blogging; what type of blogging lessons I learned from them. That real absolute surge I had, four E-books in four months, it was just me being authentic and saying this has een my life. This has been my experience. Let me share it and tie it exactly into blogging from paradise how I molded this life.

It was a pretty effortless seamless thing for me. I mean I definitely sat down and wrote two-thousand, three-thousand words a day, every day, through that period. I devoted specifically to my E-books alone. It was that intuitive nudge. It was like damn this is my life. Why don't I share it. Put it in an E-book. Then inspire to live their blogging dreams or live their online dream whatever they want to do with their lives. It was more that inner pull of just saying you know what here is your life. Why don't you write about it now. Put it on Amazon now, so people could learn about it.

Loz: You mentioned then some of the promotional aspects of getting those E-books out there and promoting your blog. You talked about your blog commenting strategy. What else are you using to get traffic, to get eyeballs on the pages? Big on social media as well things like that?

Ryan: Social media is very big, blog commenting is huge, Loz. More than that I think the number one thing I'm finding out promotional wise is priming the abundance pump handing, giving out as many free copies as possible and asking for reviews in return. Because people they buy into reviews. Of course there's metrics with Amazon with the more positive reviews you get the more people chat about it. That moves you up for search terms. That'll make you more visible.

I'm a big fan of James Patterson two-fifty, three-hundred million books sold worldwide. I just remember reading an article about him. I love his writing. I find him fascinating. He talked about how many books he gave away for free as he was working his way up in just give away, give away, give away. He primed the pump. He spread the word, get it out there. People would just pick up his book, give him great reviews.

As you get those reviews, as they boost your rep, and bump up your trust factor, you're just going to find more people talking about your books, more people buying your books. It's really the whole idea of giving freely to receive easily. It's really what I've built my lifestyle on. Of course I charge. I have businesses. I'm a blog coach, freelance business writer, sell E-books. I do some affiliate stuff as well.

It's the whole idea of as you're charging you're professional you're going to charge for your service. You're also going to give a way a ton of free stuff too. That just tells people that you know what here take it.

Like recently I had given you the copy as well. Loz, you want to check it out. If you want to write a review for me, I'd be indebted through the afterlife. It's one of those deals where just giving something away for free like a book and just to as many people as possible and saying here let me know what you think about it, it just primes the abundance pump. It gets more people to talk about you, to buy the book, and word spreads. It was all because you were generous with your time and talents.

Loz: Yes. It's definitely karma. The good will goes around and cycles. Just a question technically there on your e-mail list. You've mentioned your writing process. You've mentioned talked about how you're promoting the blog and the E books. Where does the e-mail lists fall into that strategy?

Ryan: Believe it or not Loz, I know a lot of people they can't quite get this. Right now I'm just doing an RSS list. I'm not even running an e-mail list. I know it's something that so many people are so focused on. I'm sure you can have super success with that. I know tons of people have. It never resonated with me for like the longest time. Actually too it's one of the secretes to me being so prolific.

I know a list obviously the e-mails could be shorter in length than a lot of people do quick hitters and stuff. Right now I'm just working. Again, it's what I'm resonate with. Just working off my simple RSS list.

I'll put out a blog post like the one recently actually I published ten E-books in a short time frame. It goes out to the people that subscribed to it, right to their e-mail. Not a list per se. Not in anyway grand like that. They get my blog post. Then it leads right into my call to action. Right now not an actual e-mail newsletter, although people have the option to subscribe by e-mail. A lot of people do from my blog post.

That's what I'm working off of right now. It's one of those things like for the number of years that I did list building like anything everybody fits somebody differently. People vibe with different ideas and list building never really resonated with me. I'm not really huge on that.

Loz: Okay. I'm interested in your future plans. Because your ethos and philosophy behind the blog is the blogging lifestyle, the travelling around. Is island hoping something you're going to be doing for the foreseeable future? Can you see yourself having a permanent base at some stage?

Ryan: That's tough to say, Loz, because I think right now we're definitely doing long-term island hoping just because there's so much to sample out there. We have our favorites. We have Phuket. We have Bali. We also love Ko Lanta in Thailand. Absolutely beautiful little gem of a paradise on the Andaman Sea. The thing is I just feel like there's so much of the world to sample paradise wise, like wise, especially with the tropics of so many islands to see.

We're probably going to do this indefinitely. We're probably going to do this for quite a while. Kelly loves it as well. She has her own successful businesses online. We can both do the mobile bit, do the digital nomad bit. Eventually if we do settle, I imagine Phuket would be one of the places especially southern tip of the island where we'd consider. Then also Bali as well but we'll see. Living in the moment, so we will see.

Loz: It's interesting as well just bringing it together; travel, blogging, running your own business it can be looked at really as a state of mind. From what you're saying if you keep that mindset that positivity that willingness to learn and to get out there and do something good and add some real value other people's lives you can go island hoping within your own business without actually going any where? Do you see what I mean with that analogy?

Ryan: Totally. Totally, Loz, it's so fitting. It's one of those things where when you keep that mindset when you just keep positive and you just focus, you're grateful, and you just want to be free, you see yourself freeing yourself more and more each day, the possibilities become limitless. It's just like endless possibilities just arise around you. You put on a new set of glasses.

Like most people they mean well. They don't really work on their mindset at all. They don't keep positive. They don't meditate. They really don't get that inner world clear. It's like they're watching the world or they're viewing the world with a set of dark, tinted glasses.

When you start working on your inner world and you start meditation, you surround yourself with super positive inspired people like yourself and successful people, you slowly start to take off those glasses and everything brightens up. Y

ou're like, “Wow, I didn't even think about that. You know what I should do an E-book.” “Well, no I can't do an E-book. I've never written before. I haven't written in twenty years. You know what that guy Ryan he said he was a security guard who was $70,000.00 in debt. He knew how to check espn.com and his e-mail. He wrote four E books in four months. If he can do it, then I can do it.”

Then you start feeding off the light around you, those people that are positive and energized. You use them as inspiration. You connect with them. You become friends with them. Then you start doing what they're doing.

The beautiful thing is other people become inspired by you. Then you become the example. It's just such an amazing thing. It really starts with the mindset. I'm just hell bent on it and stressing to people. You got to get that inner clarity. Because if you don't have that, then you're not going to do what you want to do to be free.

You'll do things more to make a couple bucks or just to cover your bills or to get a couple fans here and there. Playing big step by step at a time … Playing big is where the lifestyle by design happens. That's where you could … What you do full time for so many years, being your own boss, and what I've done with the island hoping, and what other successful people have done online it's you really got to know you really got to want to go free more than anything. Then once you get that down, you get your mindset down, then the magic begins to happen.

Loz: Well, that incredibly motivational. I'm sure lots of listeners are dying to go to your blog. Could you remind us where we could find you online please. Tell us where we could get hold of some of those excellent E-books.

Ryan: Sure thing, Loz. It's bloggingfromparadise.com. There's a number pages for you to click coaching services, freelance writing services. You can find any of my E-books there through sells also they're available through Amazon. You can put in bloggingfromparadise on Amazon and all of them will line down with all the lovely reviews I'm starting to get now as I'm doing my promotional blitz.

We really have a neat community where people chat with one another, share their take on blogging, on island hoping, doing the digital nomad bit. Definitely stop by leave a comment. I respond to every single one because every single reader, commentator, lurker, anybody out there who's contributed to my blog they helped create my lifestyle. They all put a brick in it's foundation or more than a few bricks to help me do this. I am eternally grateful to them. Stop by. Pick up an E-book.

If I can do it, anybody can. You've heard people say that. Looking at my background just the stuff that I've got through to get to this point if I could do it, anybody on Earth can. That's pretty my message bloggingfromparadise.com retire to a life of island hoping through smart blogging. It's there for anybody who wants to do.

Announcer: Wait for it listeners. Here comes the PS question.

Loz: Could you please share one advanced content marketing strategy we could use right after this podcast?

Ryan: Advanced content marketing, Loz, I would say blog commenting. I would say go to the top blog in your niche. If you're blogging tips blogger, go to a place like probloger.net and leave a real in depth thorough personalized comment. Say Darren Rowse wrote the blog post. You read the post and what you do is you say, “Hi Darren. Great blog post. I love the point you make.” Then leave three to four to five paragraphs. Take your time. Write a mini guest post sized comment. Say, “Thanks so much Darren I appreciate it.” Sign off on it, tweet the post.

Using that approach, I built a relationship with Chris Brogan. He's Richard Branson's business coach. He's also been a business adviser for Google, Disney, Tony Robbins, Gm. I think most people have heard of these people or organizations. He's their business advisers. He's a personal friend of mine. He's endorsed me twice. You can only imagine what that's done for my brand and my name. I did it through blog commenting.

When he had comments on his blog open years ago, I would go through every single day and leave these mini guest post size comments. How else am I going to get through his gate keepers to connect with him to where we're friends now to where he's going to promote me? For a newbie like me, especially back then when I didn't have the clarity, blog commenting definitely go with that. Three or four a day, really in depth on authority blogs, you'd be stunned at the opportunities that would open up around you and multiply around you just from leaving your opinion.

Loz: That's a great strategy. I advise everyone to go out and try it. Look, Ryan, this has been a fantastic call really inspirational really motivational. Just leaves me to say thank you very much. I wish you all the best with everything in future.

Ryan: Loz, thank you so much. I appreciate it so deeply. I really do.

Announcer: You've been listening to the Content Champion Podcast available at contentchampion.com, Stitcher, Zune, The Blackberry Network, and on iTunes. Until next time thanks for listening.

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If you enjoyed this podcast I'd love to hear your comments about it below…

I love how you titled it too; we are all after freedom on some level. A fair number of folks have manifested that freedom through much of their life and I intend that it’s our duty to spread the freedom to our audiences. I hope to be one of those guys 😉

If we just commit to being free, and to freeing our audiences, we’ll have that driver, that emotion, that we need to create magical things.

You know? I love Ryan as he is my blogging mentor. I remember, it was two years ago when I first read his articles. I commented on his blog and asked for information and he gave me a lot of motivation about my blog.

I keep going because I expected one day I am able to follow Ryan and enjoy life.

I agree, he’s a great guy and what he has to say about blogging and living a life of freedom on your own terms is very compelling. He’s an inspirational and motivational person and I’m glad he’s helped you to take your own blogging forward.

As you liked this podcast, could I ask you to leave a review for me on iTunes please? It will help other people to benefit from Ryan’s wise words 🙂

Really, after doing this podcast with Loz I rededicated myself to blog commenting. I had so many interviews and so much work to do for clients that I took a bit of a pass on commenting, and felt a bit unclear on it, as far as going all out.

Fast forward a week, and I am REALLY clear again lol…..thanks so much for stopping by and listening in, appreciate it!

I’m pretty new to the blogging game and recently came across Ryan’s blog, the fact that Ryan started with absolutely nil experience and very few skills to succeed at the level he is at now really resonated with me.

The reason I find myself on your site is because you were interviewing Ryan ( my sister in Bali actually sent me the link as I had shared with her that I had been motivated by Ryans blog and story).

The biggest take away for me is Ryan’s highlighting of the importance and power of commenting on blog posts of key people in your niche (hence I’m trying to practice what he preaches), I have just started doing this and have already managed to connect with some people as a result, and I always get a real buzz when someone takes the time to reply to a comment and follows up with genuine interest (Ryan was one of these such people and the reason I continue to follow him).

The other big thing for me is Ryan’s comment ” if I can do it, anyone on earth can do it” , as a person who prefers numbers to words, writing is definitely outside my comfort zone but Ryan’s comment has motivated me to take it on head first and not give in until I succeed.

There are a number of other great points I have taken note of to include in my plan moving forward:

* Quality not Quantity
* Write at least 2000 words a day (this will be torture to start with for me but its in the plan)
* Pick up ideas from others and be open to use them
* Never publish a post unless you feel it will make a difference
* Have a go at writing an E Book, it doesn’t need to be a novel

All in a great interview Loz, thank you once again, I’ll be back!!

Thank you too Ryan, I will continue to follow your journey and heed your advice 🙂

At present I run this blog part-time, as my main ‘day job’ is copywriting for a variety of businesses of all sizes and in most sectors – so Ryan’s mantra of writing 2,000 words a day is something I adhere to more-or-less – it’s just that a lot of my work goes on other peoples’ sites and in their marketing material, and not on this blog!

If I was putting my whole output on here I’d go even more crazy with it all because I love running a blog 🙂

I agree, the main takeaways I took from Ryan’s show were form meaningful relationships with people online – just as you would in the ‘real’ world – treat people with respect, and commit to producing the best quality material you can at all times.

This last point is something I’ve always stuck to in my 15 years as a professional writer – because creating value shows an inherent respect for your target audience (who are everything).

Although I try to create valuable content, we all invariably miss the mark sometimes – but it’s not something to beat yourself up about when a particular post doesn’t go to plan etc.

If your heart’s in the right place and you consistently try to provide value for your readers – and make those real connections with other people in your industry – then you’ll go a long way 🙂